Did the tree huggers get hold of Gunk? I tried to use the stuff in the RH side of the picture on an oily 200Tdi engine - it was about as effective as an ashtray on a motorcycle. I dug out an old bottle of original Gunk (LH side of the image) and it cut through all the muck in seconds.
Why bother even selling anything called Gunk if it won't work?
Rant over... :ranting :ranting
Gunk.jpg
Carcinogenic if I remember right. I loved that old green stuff. I felt like a grown man when my dad permitted me to use some to clean my hands after some job I'd helped him with way back
Are you not remembering Swarfega?
My old man was too tight to buy that. He used a hand full of Flora margarine.
Quote from: nathanglasgow on Mar 20, 2024, 11:11 PMAre you not remembering Swarfega?
Yes Nathan, cheers, I just hopped back on here to change it ^ :cheers-man
also used the modern stuff, useless on properly "gunked" parts, but its decent enough on smaller bits.
for thick grease and stuff now I just throw a load of petrol on it and use a stiff brush ???
I use paraffin now, it still had that oily feel to is as well
I just use petrol now too
I am all for "green" if what is now sold to do a job that the "nasty" old stuff did, actually worked. I cant think of many (any?) that do. Dum-dum, Nitromors, Gunk, Creosote. Celly paint. chrome plating just to name a few that have been replaced by lovely green products that dont actually work (or dont last long).
LIKe so many "formulations" the H&S zealots have literally "watered" down many products that we loved to use in the past. There's also the fact that big business have cut back on the expensive oil derived ingredients, so they can charge more for less.
What happened to Hammerite paint ???
What happened to Waxoyl ???
What happened to Nitromores paint stripper ???
What happened to various weed killers and pesticides ???
What happened to various chromium oxide pigments that went into paint, or red lead paint ???
The list is endless.
Big business have kept the old brand names and put them on diluted or alternative products.
:mad
They are also doing it with food. It's been found that 14% of dried herbs have been cut with undeclared material such as dried olive leaves.
Shrinkflation is the other approach. The French supermarket carfors now places a large banner next to products which have been shrunk flagging up the change.
Following it all to its eventual conclusion nothing whatever will work and we'll be offered empty packets !
I use petrol now. It's cheaper than proprietary brands. How much would a gallon of Gunk cost?
I thought this might trigger a reaction... :cheers
The new stuff just smells like a mild detergent which is probably all that it is. Usually I too use petrol for cleaning things, but an oily engine in a Defender is not ideally placed to be soaked in petrol, so I thought I'd use what I had to hand. Lesson. learned
I use Diesel rather than petrol, it's safer and does as good a job as the original Gunk.
It can leave a slightly oily residue after washing off, which can be good to stop flash rusting, but if I want that off as well I use Screwfix degreaser (which I suspect is as good as the modern Gunk) in a spray bottle afterwards and a hosing down.
I also use Diesel, or heating oil which I still have a small supply of since changing to gas, in my parts washer.
what I never understood about this stuff is, usually when its "green" its more friendly, but doesn't even do a decent job. so you end up needing more/doing it more often, so surely it offsets the cost of it being "green" in the end.
worse paint, item rusts more often, needs to be replaced more often. type of deal ???
I remember reading that galvanising isn't anywhere near as good as the old stuff too
Strange that petrol never occurred to me to use as a degreaser.
I have been using universal paint thinners from my local motor factors for my series one recently. That is around £12 for 5 litres but it does go a long way and I save the used stuff in another can, let the dirt settle then use it again as a pre-cleaner on the next dirty parts.
It really does clean though so you can get overnight rust on bare steel parts.
I managed to get around 10 litres of Ambersil / Amberklene Lo30 a while back. That is doing a great job on the axle parts at the minute, it's low odour hence the Lo name so less obnoxious than the paint thinners and it also doesn't evaporate as quickly. That is expensive stuff to buy though.
For the engine block I used Mr Muscle spray on oven cleaner. I sprayed it all over, worked it in with a stiff brush inside and out then pressure washed it all. That removed the black layer of carbon from inside the engine as well but you do need to wear gloves, it does burn the arms...
I did try Jizer a few years ago. Did work back then but the left over mess after washing with water was a bit difficult to deal with. Didn't do the lawn any favours....
Craig.
A friend of mine uses Dasty, a household degreaser, on his old BMW motorcycle. Works a treat, he says. It's quite popular with gunk removers in all layers of society, but mostly petrol heads. But as far as I know it's only for sale at the Wibra, a Dutch discount store chain.
But... But Dasty is no exception: ethanolamine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanolamine), which is highly alkaline, and highly incompatible with functioning eyeballs, and limonene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limonene), which accounts for the citrusy smell of Dasty and its green image, but which also is highly flammable (50 °C) and highly incompatible with functioning lungs. In small rodents it has been proven to be carcinogenic. But hey, we're not rodents...
I for one am glad they ban the bad stuff. However good it is at removing gunk. Chemotherapy is worse than gunk. I remember tinkering with my old Austin Maxi in a NS car hobby club shed and others using compressed air to clean out brake drums. This was in the seventies, eighties, when only oncologists and tree huggers thought asbestos was bad for you.
Richard
Gunk.... That's a trip down memory lane. Last time I did any serious de-greasing I used paraffin as it was cheaper than petrol and didn't evaporate as much if left for a few days.
Got me idly musing that neat washing up liquid can have a degreasing effect, wonder if a mix of washing up liquid and paraffin might work? Might try and sneak some our of the house and try.😀
Quote from: GHOBHW on Mar 21, 2024, 08:36 AMwhat I never understood about this stuff is, usually when its "green" its more friendly, but doesn't even do a decent job. so you end up needing more/doing it more often, so surely it offsets the cost of it being "green" in the end.
worse paint, item rusts more often, needs to be replaced more often. type of deal ???
I remember reading that galvanising isn't anywhere near as good as the old stuff too
It seems that nothing today is as good as the old stuff. I've still got some Dum Dum left but when it's gone that's it.
Diesel Works quite well at shifting oily swarf & Crud :gold-cup
I find washing up liquid mixed with soap powder works well.
Does the "old stuff is better and worked harder than the new stuff" mantra, apply to humans too?
Just asking..... ;)
I use a scraper and then paraffin - or this stuff:
https://www.tmchemicals.co.uk/d-grease-heavy-duty-solvent-degreaser-164-p.asp
(Albeit I am now wondering if it is as good as it used to be, because they now say they sell "environmentally friendly" products!)
By chance I came across a 2 1/2 litre can of hammerite which I know I must have has for 24 years because I can remember what I bought it for.
It must have been comparatively much cheaper then, I wouldn't have paid the equivalent price then to what it is now and when opened it was powerful stuff, a strong smell, very different to today's paint.
It says it was made by the hammerite paint company in Northumberland and contains xylene. The new stuff has Akzo Nobel on the can, doesn't contain xylene and is made somewhere else. It's also poor, I recently aerosol sprayed primer before painting over with hammerite. It blistered just as if it had been coated in old nitromors.
Strangely Swarfega seems to be one product that is still very effective at cleaning oily/greasy hands :gold-cup
(https://www.series2club.co.uk/2023_new_forum/Smileys/wittsends/swarfega.gif)
(https://www.wittsend.co.uk/wittsend_technical/images/swarfega.jpg)
And they have a new orange hand cleaner with little balls mixed in which also seems to be effective.
:RHD
Quote from: Robin on Mar 21, 2024, 08:35 AMI use Diesel
I used to use red diesel to wash my hands after working in the woods - it's really good at shifting pine sap along with everything else.
Then a workmate asked if the pine didn't smell better than the diesel. That really got in my head and I stopped doing it...
I usually wash my hands in cellulose thinner. It shifts the grime very well.
Quote from: Alan Drover on Mar 21, 2024, 09:22 PMI usually wash my hands in cellulose thinner. It shifts the grime very well.
I hope you are joking Alan!
Ian F
It's not always that the new formulations are 'green' – often the changes are not connected to environmental legislation, but to health and saftey (i.e human health and safety, not that of the environment.)
Dichloromethane paint stripper, which is what used to make Nitromors work, was withdrawn from sale to the public for this reason, not because of any effect it has on the environment. You can still buy DCM, as long as you tell the retailer you're an industrial user.
Quote from: Ian F on Mar 21, 2024, 09:47 PMQuote from: Alan Drover on Mar 21, 2024, 09:22 PMI usually wash my hands in cellulose thinner. It shifts the grime very well.
I hope you are joking Alan!
Ian F
No I'm not Ian. It takes only a very small amount to shift the grease and I usually finish with soap and water after.
Quote from: dartymoor on Mar 21, 2024, 09:12 PMQuote from: Robin on Mar 21, 2024, 08:35 AMI use Diesel
Then a workmate asked if the pine didn't smell better than the diesel. That really got in my head and I stopped doing it...
Good stuff, Diesel. But it does stink.
Carburettor or brake cleaner is always an effective way of cutting though thick grease. Petrol or diesel is more cost effective though.
Quote from: Alchad on Mar 21, 2024, 09:43 AMGot me idly musing that neat washing up liquid can have a degreasing effect, wonder if a mix of washing up liquid and paraffin might work? Might try and sneak some our of the house and try.😀
There's another example. New safe lead-free low-calorie free-traded vegetarian nut-free washing up liquid doesn't work properly even to wash dishes. It's got no "bite" to it, unlike the traditional fluid. It's useless at shifting grease and fat, and uses twice as much.
You often get the first warning that something has been tampered with and down-graded when it starts to smell different or they alter the colour. TCP, Germolene, moth balls are examples of things that don't work as well now.
My Aug' 2018 expiry TCP still smells reliably bloody awful. Oops 😄
Its so nice to read that I'm not the only grumpy old git on here... And I'm not even that old. I plan to get grumpier, so watch this space...
Best hand cleaner I ever used was GoJo Orange. It's a lovely white soap with fine abrasive grit in it and smells of oranges surprisingly. Really good stuff although not commonly available.
Those buckes of hand wipes you get from Screwfix are useful as well. If I've been elbow deep in an engine or gearbox, I normally do a pre-clean with those before heading indoors to use the orange cleaner. Apparently leaving hand prints on the door handles and white PVC doors is not acceptable.
Craig.
What's wrong with sawdust and carbolic ???
Are we allowed sawdust ???
It's interesting (to me as an ex-chemist) that many of these products mentioned here are derived from a class of organic compounds - cresols.
(https://www.series2club.co.uk/2023_new_forum/images/creosols.jpg)
Derived from coal tar and have the characteristic smell of creosote, TCP, Gunk and others.
Another class of compounds derived from oil refining are the Naphtols, Benzene, Phenol and Toluene (the smell of old Evostik) type solvents that are good "degreasers" and amongst other things - the moth ball smell.
Many products were considered to be therapeutic but have since been found to be carcinogenic and we are not allowed to splash them all over :shakinghead
:mad
And yet millions are spent promoting revolting air fresheners, clothes fresheners and deoderants that are known to cause breathing difficulties for many people and can attack your immune system longterm :confused
It was somewhat amusing/ironic that in the '80s they replaced leaded petrol with unleaded petrol. Initially the lead was replaced by up to 25% benzine. Arguably a more toxic compound than tetraethyl lead :thud
Now the benzine has long gone, replaced by ethanol, derived from food crops :thud
You couldn't make this nonsense up !
(https://www.series2club.co.uk/2023_new_forum/Smileys/wittsends/skull_and_cross_bones.gif)
Carbon Tetrachloride was a good degreaser too.
I'm enjoying this thread... :cheers
Shampoo and sugar works well on greasy hands. Fairy liquid, handwash too.
Whether the sugar helps chemically or as an abrasive I don't know.
There was a cleaner called Thawpit which IIRC, contained carbon tet.
When I was a kid with a cold I was told to sit with my head over a steaming bowl of Friars Balsam, with my head under a tea towel. Think it was benzene based. Made your eyes water a bit. :'(
70 years later, I am still here ???
I was subject to that treatment with Vick dissolved in hot water.
My teacher used to go through a couple of Gauloises Caporal (the blue old packets, long banned) during French classes. But that's opening a whole new topic ...
As has been mentioned on here a couple of times. The sad thing is that they indroduce something that's supposedly so much better but if you look (or think about it) carefully it quite obviously introduces something as - or even more - hazardous or detrimental to your or the collective health. Still they feel great about it, tell you there is no other option and go on in this fashion ad infinitum.
... a bit like Electric Vehicles :thud
Remember when Gordon Brown said diesel was good for the environment, better than petrol so skewed tax in it's favour. Now diesel's no good and it's electric cars.
Remember when we were all encouraged to burn wood to help the environment and Drax was turned over from coal to wood fire. Now Bristol council is considering fining people who use wood burners £300.
Remember when John Gummer stuffed a beef burger into his daughter's mouth and assured us you couldn't contract BSE from eating contaminated meat.
The moral I think is make your own mind up about everything, though inhaling trych' or any of the other chemicals or dust obviously isn't a good idea neither is getting 'stuff' on your hands. I wear palm gloves from toolstation, about £1.50 a pair and last for months. I only ever need to wash my hands with soap and water.
I do have an unopened ( metal) of gunk from the 70's......I'm open to offers :cool
Quote from: Ken on Mar 22, 2024, 06:09 PMI do have an unopened tin ( metal) of Gunk from the 70's......I'm open to offers :cool
Vintage Gunk :gold-cup
Its value can only increase.
... one day on Antiques Roadshow ???
By chance I noticed on the Bangers & Cash programme the other day, an unopened bottle (sold in glass bottles back in the '60s) of Castrol engine oil went for £70.
(https://www.series2club.co.uk/2023_new_forum/Smileys/wittsends/englands_glory.gif)
Quote from: Ken on Mar 22, 2024, 06:09 PMRemember when Gordon Brown said diesel was good for the environment, better than petrol so skewed tax in it's favour. Now diesel's no good and it's electric cars.
Remember when we were all encouraged to burn wood to help the environment and Drax was turned over from coal to wood fire. Now Bristol council is considering fining people who use wood burners £300.
Remember when John Gummer stuffed a beef burger into his daughter's mouth and assured us you couldn't contract BSE from eating contaminated meat.
The moral I think is make your own mind up about everything, though inhaling trych' or any of the other chemicals or dust obviously isn't a good idea neither is getting 'stuff' on your hands. I wear palm gloves from toolstation, about £1.50 a pair and last for months. I only ever need to wash my hands with soap and water.
I do have an unopened ( metal) of gunk from the 70's......I'm open to offers :cool
I agree. I too wear gloves and I think you'd be hard pressed these days to find a professional mechanic that doesn't. I think that is a good thing. I also think it's a bit cynical – and grumpy-old-men-like – to say that everything new is worse than everything old.
Richard
Quote from: Richard on Mar 23, 2024, 08:11 AMI also think it's a bit cynical – and grumpy-old-men-like – to say that everything new is worse than everything old.
Absolutely agree, but its great fun doing it!
I come from the Rick Wakeman School of grumpy people - the odd thing I have to grudgingly admit may have improved a bit.
Hm, where does that remind me of :cool (https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaXJ6azhrZG04d2cyeWFlNTdweWNoejdhZXN6d3lma25xYmtoemlwaSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/nPxVvyTWo1aIU/giphy.gif)
Richard
(https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaXJ6azhrZG04d2cyeWFlNTdweWNoejdhZXN6d3lma25xYmtoemlwaSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/nPxVvyTWo1aIU/giphy.gif)
(Finally found the way to embed the gif...)
Richard
I also have an old tin of Gunk and its almost full. For washing oily hands I liked Swarfega, but always finished off with soap to get rid of the smell. But then I found something called barrier cream, after that I never used anything else.
Call me Mr Softy, but soaking my hands in some of the chemicals mentioned in earlier posts, doesn't seem like a very good idea, because although the skin is waterproof, it is the second most common route by which occupational chemicals enter the body.
Its not uncommon for so called wonder drugs, or stuff for garage workshops, to eventually be removed/banned for health & environmental concerns. Remember Thalidomide & DDT ? About 10 years ago we were told our toothpaste, shower gels and other cosmetic products, contained microbeads (synthetic polymers/polylactic acid etc), it then took about 4 years for this crazy practice to be banned in the UK.
It seems these multinational conglomerates, with their clever scientists/chemists :mad , invent these things and then have us guinea pigs test them. And as Ken has said above, its happening with our food to, try to read the very small print of ingredients/additives on the packet and unless you have a degree in chemistry or the like, its not likely you`ll understand any of it :ranting
I have never understood why there should be nanoparticles in car shampoo, or hand cream, or any kind of food for that matter. Are nanotubes the new asbestos?
Richard
I recall reading some time ago that old school car mechanics suffered a higher than normal incidence of testicular cancer.
It was thought the standard practice of keeping an oily rag (often soaked in old engine oil) in their trouser/overall pocket was the cause.
I'm careful to avoid skin contact with used engine oil and clean any off promptly that does get on my skin.
I also don't use it to protect the chassis or on the springs. I use old EP90 instead.
Going back to the subject of food. I live in a very rural location, surrounded by farmland. It's completely dead, there's not a living thing in the soil due to chemical farming. A lot of crops are sprayed 7 times using anti fungal, insecticide and herbicide. That's after glyphosating the field before starting. To encourage the crop they throw nitrates around and slurry which contains hormone treatment, anti worm and anti biotics.
Having seen at close quarters how food is produced we grow our own, we're lucky to have enough land to do so though it takes a lot of effort. That said we still have problems, our water supply is from a bore hole ( no mains water, sewage or gas here) and that too has been poisoned by the local farmers. The nitrate level is 5 times higher than the UK approved maximum and 25 times higher than that of the US.
Be careful over everything, your food is contaminated, don't add to your problems by being casual with our hobby.
Not keen on farmer-bashing.
Farmers will grow your food any way you want, if you will pay the cost.
The fact is that consumers won't - and if the price of UK food goes up, Aldi will buy it elsewhere however it is produced, just so they can say "it's cheaper than Lidl."
All politicians since the War have been committed to "cheap food" - they wouldn't get elected otherwise.
No matter that it may actually be "cheap 'n nasty food."
How many people die from agricultural-chemical poisoning, compared to alcohol poisoning?
Yet kids are allowed to pour vast quantities of alcohol direct into their bloodstream, dispensed by people with no training at all in how to handle poisons.....
Priorities?
I started this off as a mini tongue in cheek rant. Treat it with the spirit for which it was intended - just a bit of fun. It's probably not necessary to take this too seriously.
I agree DW.
Just couldn't let the previous post go unanswered.
So what DID happen to Gunk? :)
Not farmer bashing, my farming neighbours are good people, I get on well with them. What I said is reality. Be aware of the chemicals you are exposed to.
It's kind of ironic that as grown ups aware of our own responsibilities we are not allowed to use a lot of products that we know will do the job so are forced into using watered down stuff for reasons of health and safety / environment yet we are allowed to use cigarettes which we know are lethal to both health and environment with impunity. Why don't 'they ' take all the nasty stuff out of them too ?
And it's no good just putting the tax up because the smoking fraternity will always find the money somehow.
Sorry DW I didn't mean to bring it down again
Quote from: Exile on Mar 23, 2024, 07:17 PMSo what DID happen to Gunk? :)
Reading back through this collective rant, I don't think the original question ever got answered! :gold-cup
In all seriousness if it was as nasty as it probably was then its right that it should have been replaced with something less harmful to the environment or me. My point was that if something is being sold to do a job, I would expect it to be at least half capable of doing it. The Tdi engine has an oily layer all over it as is common for most old diesels. It wasn't hard encrusted on - just an oily layer. I could have just as easily sprayed on some brake cleaner and cleaned it off with an old paint brush. I don't mind change, but do object when the change leads to a product being totally ineffective. We all know that removing asbestos from brakes and clutches has saved lives, but the replacement material is definitely not as effective in actually stopping me from putting my Land Rover through the hedge.
Spraying vast quantities of brake cleaner with a high VOC to clean off components seems to be the common workshop solution these days which it itself is environmentally self defeating. I am guilty of that one.
I'm 56 now... If I'm this grumpy now, what on earth am I going to be like when I'm 76?
And just to add - I bought a 25 litre drum of concentrated cleaner for my parts washer. It was sold as being water based, so mixed in a 1:10 ratio.
Absolutely and totally and utterly useless. All it did was create a nasty oily scum on the surface, bung up the pump and when I then left it for a few weeks with the lid down, all it did was grow a nice layer of mould inside the tank. I'm convinced I created a new life form in my parts washer, but that's not really the purpose of a parts washer in my mind.
I ended up ditching the whole thing.
If anybody wants the remaining 20 odd litres, in all seriousness, they are welcome to it. Free to anybody coming past this way.
If not, I'll palm it off on some poor unsuspecting victim at Newbury.
Gunk, what a good word and like the word Hoover becoming the common description for vacuuming, Gunk is oft used as a generic term for describing the very stuff its there to clean off. At least I`ve used it and have heard others use it with that meaning, e.g. "its full of gunk" "I need to clean off all that old gunk".
And so, by taking on the same meaning as gunge, Gunk can be with us so long as we keep using it :)
On the subject of how things have changed, and to really scare yourself my wife is reading https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451300/ultra-processed-people-by-tulleken-chris-van/9781529160222 and I plan to when she has finished it. I'm not a big fan of what can be over sensationalised books about these big issues, but this is a genuinely eye opening and well written (with the right touch of humour) book, which will change how you think about what you eat. We have already made some small simple changes to our diet which was already I would say on the better end of things (two vegetarians who grow a good amount of their own food organically, and only eat eggs from the own chickens etc.)
So much "food" is not actually food anymore - it literally has zero nutritional value for the body, and we only eat it because it has chemicals which stimulate the body in to wanting to eat more.
Anyway back to Gunk does anyone have any recommendations for a good parts cleaner? I have tried various ones of recent years and not really found a good one.
Quote from: diffwhine on Mar 24, 2024, 07:39 AMQuote from: Exile on Mar 23, 2024, 07:17 PMSo what DID happen to Gunk? :)
I'm 56 now... If I'm this grumpy now, what on earth am I going to be like when I'm 76?
Well, speaking as someone who is only a year or so from reaching that milestone, my experience is that you will continue to get grumpier and then it sorts of plateaus and you begin to realise that no matter how much you grumble it 'ain't worth a mess of beans' as our friends across the pond say. Mind I might have just been worn down to surrender by those b^&*^'s from Evri who always leave my parcels at the top of the drive1/2 mile from the house....grump.
Quote from: Alchad on Mar 24, 2024, 09:51 AMMind I might have just been worn down to surrender by those b^&*^'s from Evri who always leave my parcels at the top of the drive1/2 mile from the house....grump.
Evri need a whole new thread, all of their own ! :ranting
.... at the end of your drive, you're lucky. They normally leave them miles away with a picture of someone else's front door. :thud
I went on a first aid course in 1987 which was run by a retired GP. He had spent his life practising in Bury, Lancs and he said that there was a high incidence of bladder cancer amongst the textile factory engineers. His theory was that grimy overalls, stained with oil, not changed often enough together with oily unwashed hands when visiting the toilet were the reason. Since then I started to be very very particular about hand cleanliness and contact with oils.
But what happened to Gunk ? I don't know but old established products just dissapear, I've just cleaned down a 2.25 diesel, with diesel and washing up liquid but I scrape off as much of the thicker grime as I can first.
Latex/rubber gloves are now de rigour in the workshop :nurse
... and/or the black skin tight work gloves.
:RHD
Presumably a manufacturer of a product such as gunk finds that the law changes and bans the chemicals which makes their product effective.
The only way to continue trading is to find a suitable alternative. If there are none they all seem to be carrying on in business hoping no one will notice the product is now no longer fit for purpose. The interesting question is how long can these companies trade on their reputation.
It must be a slow decline to zero sales as customers realise.
Quote from: Wittsend on Mar 24, 2024, 10:36 PMLatex/rubber gloves are now de rigour in the workshop :nurse
... and/or the black skin tight work gloves.
These may be the gloves you are referring to Alan, but I would advise using Nitrile gloves rather than any other. They are the only material impervious to many organic solvents.
As a chemist in a previous life you probably know more about this sort of thing than I do😁😁😁
Ian F
:RHD
[/quote]
You are correct. I used those terms in a "generic" sense.
What we call "rubber" gloves have long since been made of other more durable materials.
My point being that many/all of us now protect our hands when working on our vehicles.
When you think of what we used to do back in the day, it's a wonder any of us are still alive :confused
:cool
When I was at school, we were frequently put in the fume cupboard during chemistry lessons of we acted up. I wonder if that is the root of all my problems... :thud
I like the orange heavy duty gloves with the diamond grip. They tend to be more expensive, but they outlast normal gloves by about 5:1. I can usually get through one day of gearbox work on two pairs.
Well I suppopse it all makes sense, but I have hardly ever worn gloves when working on machinery.
My hands have got covered in everything from old oil, paint thinners, neat xylene, and gallons and gallons of creosote, to body filler which has cured on my fingers.
I now can't sleep at night, worrying that I might die before I am fifty...... :)
Ah yes, the my-father-smoked-a-pouch-of-Zware-Van-Nelle-per-day-and-drank-a-pint-of-Gunk-before-dinner-and-he's-97-now-still-chasing-the-lady's-argument :cool
I'm happy for you your hands survived the ordeal, but research into occupational exposure and cancer incidence does seem to suggest there is a correlation. I know, there's lies, damned lies and statistics, but proper statistics don't lie.
Richard
You could get Gunk until fairly recently in Halfords. I had a 5 litre tin when I restored the 88 3 years ago.
It must have been the genuine article because after 'gunking' the crap off the engine, and washing it off on the driveway it did a great job in killing all the moss that was covering the paves!
The smell lasted quite a while. I wasn't popular with the wife or neighbours.
All the good stuff is either banned or for commercial use only, probably for the best for future generations.
The damage is done for the oldies best not to think back what i have done renovating old houses cars,certainly didn't bother before with latex gloves those were for doctors.